SKU: 85707717693
josephine baker gold dress

josephine baker gold dress Baker, Josephine. (1906–1975)] Banana Belt and Headdress, worn at the – Schubertiade Music and Arts

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josephine baker gold dress Baker, Josephine. (1906–1975)] Banana Belt and Headdress, worn at the – Schubertiade Music and ArtsTwo iconic items from the celebrated entertainer, including one of her famous banana belts, this example circa 1930 1950 with gold sequins on the side, apparently worn by her at the Casino de Paris. Former ORTF, SFP Collection. The belt is in heavily worn but stable condition. Ten banana forms are attached, presumably of a larger original number, to a yellow fabric strip. Remnants of sequin detailing remain though most have perished. The filled gold

Two iconic items from the celebrated entertainer, including one of her famous banana belts, this example circa 1930-1950 with gold sequins on the side, apparently worn by her at the Casino de Paris. Former ORTF, SFP Collection.

The belt is in heavily worn but stable condition. Ten banana forms are attached, presumably of a larger original number, to a yellow fabric strip. Remnants of sequin detailing remain though most have perished. The filled gold fabric forms are mostly in stable condition with some creases and small tears and loose threads around the seams.  10 x 14 x 1 inches. Provenance: Former ORTF, SFP Collection. Truly, one of the most iconic items in performance history. 

Sold together with an extraordinary fruit turban headdress with rhinestones and pearls, also from the collection of Josephine Baker.  Inscribed to label with inventory number and the ORTF insignia, "Achat Granier - Joséphine Baker, 30163 OJ83." The painted fruits with significant chipping and some losses, some elements partially loose but stable overall. 27 x 22 x 15 inches. Provenance: Former ORTF, SFP Collection.  One of the extraordinarily elaborate feather and fruit headpieces which were part of the performer's signature costumes. 

Baker was most noted as a singer, while in her early career she was a celebrated dancer. She was given the nicknames the "Black Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nations, while in France she has always been known in the old theatrical tradition as "La Baker." Around 1930, she "began a long and successful collaboration with the Casino de Paris. The Casino was not as famous as the Folies Bergère, but it was still a first-class music hall. Its seasonal productions were extremely lavish, and in no time, Baker re-established herself as the leading star of the Parisian stage." (Alan Schroeder, "Josephine Baker: Entertainer," p. 48)

The Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française (ORTF; lit. 'French Broadcasting and Television Office'), was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. When ORTF was divided into 7 smaller organizations, the SFP (Société Française de Production) took control of some of the archives. 

"The image of a dancing Josephine Baker, clad in pasties and a skirt made from replica bananas, is something of a cultural icon. However, today, the skirt’s meaning is very different than when Baker first wore it in 1926. Baker donned the revealing–and according to certain early 1900s moralists, ‘degrading’–skirt when she was still making a name for herself on the international stage. Her performances in the skirt soon gained her fame and fortune that she then used to fight Nazis in France and structural racism in America. As a performer, Baker used her sexuality and hyper awareness of image to manipulate her audience’s sexist and racist fantasies, and deployed them to build a platform for herself to dismantle the very social systems and cultural beliefs that they stemmed from.

Baker’s La Danse Sauvage quickly made her the star of La Revue Nègre. She appeared almost naked, clad mostly in feathers, swinging her hips as her equally exposed partner Joe Alex beat a drum. With rhythmic thrusts and sensual sways, Baker’s movements embodied the sexual language anthropologists projected onto nonwhite bodies. Her audience loved it. “In the short pas de deux of the savages, which came as the finale of the Revue Nègre, there was a wild splendor and magnificent animality,” performance attendee and dance critic André Levinson said. “The plastic sense of a race of sculptors came to life and the frenzy of African Eros swept over the audience. It was no longer a grotesque dancing girl that stood before them, but the black Venus that haunted Baudelaire.”

Only a year later, the dancer donned her famous banana skirt for Folies-Bergére’s civility/primitivism-themed La Folie du Jour. Sixteen rubber bananas hung from a low-slung belt around the dancer’s waist. Along with matching pearl necklaces and jewels, the iconic costume brilliantly appeased and critiqued her audience’s most lurid fantasies. The skirt’s phallic appendages evoked France’s colonial involvement in both the rubber and banana trades. It seemed to present Baker as a colonial sex object, but in doing so highlighted the exploitative nature of the economic and political orders that made her one. Plus, the allegory-loaded skirt’s silhouette subverted ballet’s proper tutu.

Baker was not the only performer on the nightclub circuit to perform African-inspired dances or wear revealing clothing, but she possessed a unique understanding of the racial and power dynamics underlying Paris’ obsession with jazz. She was “a creature neither infrahuman nor superhuman but somehow both,” American poet E.E. Cummings wrote. “A mysterious unkillable Something, equally nonprimitive and uncivilized, or beyond time in the sense that emotion is beyond arithmetic.” Baker embodied an ever-changing character that audience members like Cummings hoped to simultaneously dominate, tame, and embody. " (Courtney DeLong, CR Fashion Book, "Remembering Josephine Baker's Cultural Impact, Banana Skirt, and Beyond")

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SKU: 85707717693

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DriftChick
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 3
Kept puppy interested!... Till she chewed it apart in 5 minutes
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I'll start off by saying this is a really unique toy. You really can hide treats in the pocket and the velcro is strong enough to roll it up that it won't come undone easily. The different textures and sounds interest my puppy! And she LOVES it! But it didn't last long with her. She LOVES rope toys and ripping them apart and eating it. I literally had just given it to her and not even a minute later (not joking), she had torn off a row of the rope-like part. 5 minutes later, the tail is already in shambles lol So long story short, great and interesting toy to keep the doggy from being bored. Maybe not so great for aggressive chewers/rippers in the long term. More than likely will be torn to shreds by the end of the day.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2025
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Aubrey D Frank
Fort Morgan, US
★★★★★ 5
Great quality, fun design.
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
Wonderfully durable.. We have a 3 y/o australian kelpey and a 2 y/o pitty.. both are incredibly playful and tear up toys like nobody's business. A lot of the time under a day.. We're on day three with this eel, they love it and its holding firm (no tears or missing pieces). Squeakers are their favorite and these ones are perfect ( prominent but not too loud)
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Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2026
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Lindsey Adams
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 5
Sturdy
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
It’s has held up pretty good for my aggressive chewer dog. She typically tore these types of toys apart immediately. One of the ears she pulled off right away but the toy itself has stayed intakes (so far). It keeps her occupied long enough and she drags it everywhere with her.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2026
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Gail T. Clark
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 4
size is small
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
Smaller than I anticipated but my dog enjoys it. After 3 days it is already getting ripped a little bit where the treats get hidden so not sure how long it will last. My dog is about 40 lbs.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2026
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Jane in AZ
Port Orchard, US
★★★★★ 5
A winning toy!
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel, Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
This is the best dog toy ever! I have a Cockapoo that is 8 years old but thinks she is 2. She chews up everything so I've gone thru a lot of dog toys. This toy has lasted 6 months - truly record breaking for her. It's become all raggy so time to get a new one. Thank you Nocciola for inventing a quality fun toy that lasts. Photo shows toy after 6 mo. of playing tug of war!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2026

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